Culture

SKATCH | The Asian Representation Movie-ment and Its One Pitfall

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The two movies pictured above have set off a wave of Asian and Asian-American embracement both cinematically and across the internet that has given hope to millions of Asians, myself included, who finally get to see people who look like them in roles other than the stereotypical Harvard (blegh) nerd with humorously strict parents. The media’s Asian representation movement is powerful and wonderful. Sitting in the theater for Crazy Rich Asians and hearing the song my Mom swears she played while I was still in the womb (“Tian Mi Mi” by Teresa Teng) provoked an emotional experience I hadn’t felt since my sister forced me to watch Joy Luck Club some seven-odd years ago. Just as back then, I recognized a storyline whose parallels intimately related to my own life (not in the “I’m a Singaporean billionaire kind of way,” but in the “Wow Asian families love hard, fight hard,” kind of way). As my eyes welled with tears, the moment was made more beautiful when I looked to my friends and saw their tears streaming as well.

Life

SAVING FACE | Remembering Executive Order 9066

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On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt infamously signed and issued Executive Order 9066. For the unaware, Executive Order 9066 was the authorization for the Secretary of War to create military zones and exclude certain people from these zones after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Although the order does not explicitly mention people of Japanese descent, it cleared the way to allow subsequent military orders that led to the eviction and internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans (which came out to every Japanese American in California, Washington, and Utah). For comparison, only 3000 Italians were rounded up. This year marks the 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9066.

Culture

SAVING FACE | How to be Asian American

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When I was in elementary school, my parents would gather with their Chinese friends every Friday night for a Bible Study. While the adults were upstairs, all of us kids would find a computer downstairs and crowd behind it. I have fond memories of those nights playing Club Penguin (RIP) and Runescape with my friends. One day, running a little late, I bounded downstairs but ran into an unfamiliar scene. Instead of all my friends playing video games, they were all watching some guy making jokes into a camera.

Life

SAVING FACE | LUNCHTIME

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Lunch was probably my least favorite part of elementary school. Now don’t get me wrong, I wanted a break from school as much as everyone else. When asked what my favorite class in school was, I would always cheekily respond with “Recess.” Yet, without fail, five minutes before the bell would signal the end of fourth period, a knot in my stomach would begin to form. During school, I felt like all my other classmates. We all took the same classes, we all struggled over the same homework, and we all played the same games.

Culture

POLITICS & STUFF | American Dream

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I am the child of immigrants. I am the child of two people who moved to another country with not a penny to their names and worked themselves to the bone for twenty years to finally earn a small house with a yellow lawn and white picket fence. My parents worked hard and endured continuous years of hardship because they were promised a light at the end of the tunnel. My family is The American Dream personified. And just as my parents’ lives were strung along by a longheld promise, my life has been shaped by that same promise.

Culture

ON MY MIND | Wake Up Mr. Kim: On Asians Who Say the N-word

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Hello! Today I want to talk about why it’s not okay for non-black people of color – specifically Asian and Pacific Americans – to say the N-word. But before we can do that, I need you to chew on this interesting and relevant anecdote:

Picture me, Spring, 2015. The air was brimming with promise as I contemplated the two glimmering stars compelling me towards a sweet horizon – a.k.a. high school graduation and Kanye West’s supposed new album So Help Me God SWISH Waves The Life of Pablo. On an otherwise nondescript sunny day in March, I found myself at one of several school-sponsored “parties” for our graduating class.